The Last Stand
The Last Stand is a "campaign" exclusive to Survival Mode. It has only one map called The Lighthouse. The goal is to survive as long as possible against both the clock and an endless horde of Infected. The campaign's tagline "It Doesn't End Well" reflects the fact that all the Survivors will ultimately die. This is also the only free DLC for the Xbox 360 version. Last Stand takes place at a remote cliff-top lighthouse. Since this is a Survival mini-campaign, Valve was content to contextualize it with a purely nominal storyline: a road leading up to a chain-link fence and car with its headlamps still on are enough to suggest that the Survivors sought to escape to this remote area with perhaps an idea of signalling for help from the lighthouse. According to writer Chet, this campaign explains what would happen if the Survivors took a wrong turn and attempted to call for help from this location; in which regard, some commentators have gone so far as to posit that it as a hypothetical branching associated with the Death Toll campaign (refer Notes section below). In any event, The Last Stand is non-canonical as the four Survivors from Left 4 Dead appear in a chronologically later campaign: The Passing. Below is a survival gameplay of the campaign: #The Lighthouse Please note that the gameplay videos are on each campaign's info page and not on each map page. Strategy Light House Walkway Method *The horde is fought from the top of the lighthouse (i.e.) the wraparound walk way. This gives the best line of sight and forces all of the Infected to climb up thereby slowing them down greatly. *Having at least one Survivor with a Hunting Rifle is highly recommended on account of the available sight lines and the need to combat the constant threat of distant Smokers pulling Survivors off the walkway. *Assault rifles are highly recommended so as to engage all Infected (especially Tanks) from the moment they come into sight. *One player with an Auto Shotgun is a good idea to take out pouncing Hunters and to mop up any Infected that do manage to climb up onto the walkway at the top of the lighthouse. Having more than one shotgunner is ill-advised―shotguns do not have a long range capability. *Molotovs and Pipe bombs are excellent force multipliers. *If an ammo run is needed, the best route is via the roof of the generator room since it requires less climbing and keeps players off the ground. *Time spent before the scenario kicks off bringing all of the Gas Cans and Propane Tanks up to the very top of the lighthouse is never wasted. Care is obviously needed to group these supplies in one known spot to reduce the risk of stray gunfire igniting them and thus obliterating the team. A sniper perched up on the walkway can throw these items down and use them opportunistically. As noted above and below, camping snipers make easy targets for Smokers so they must keep moving and scanning the middle distance. *Note that Smokers generally attack from three locations: from middle distances behind trees on the hills on the Survivors' left; the ground on the water front side; and the lower roof levels on the water front side. *Smokers set up on the hillside are extremely difficult to see whilst those on the seaward side are able to drag their victims so far away that rescue is often impossible. *The drawbacks to this strategy are twofold. Firstly, the walkway railings are fragile and can result in players falling off the walkway and thus becoming incapped by hanging at inopportune times. Secondly, players make excellent targets for Smokers who can almost effortlessly drag their victims off the light house and beyond any hope of rescue (especially when a Tank is in play). To avoid these pitfalls, walkway players must keep moving and scanning the middle distance so Smokers either cannot lock onto a target or are taken out before they can set up and attack. Moreover, when Tanks arrive, players should move down to a lower level of the roof as this will give clearer lines of fire and nullify the blind angles and deadly drops associated with the walkway. *It is absolutely imperative that team members communicate threats, actions and intentions! House Defense Method *Another good spot to defend from the horde is inside the house, all of the Survivors should use Auto shotguns or three Auto shotguns and one Assault Rifle. *The advantage to this tactic is that the Special Infected become way less effective because each Survivor is positioned in their own corner of the room. When a Hunter pounces someone he can be easily dispatched by a covering teammate as can a Smoker trying to drag a victim out, and a Boomer can only slime two Survivors at a time at most―they are basically standing unprotected open sight during their attack phases. *Gas Cans should be stationed around the house and especially outside the front door to keep that way clear. All team members should have Pipe Bombs to hand. *The Tanks die really quickly if shotguns are used at close range (refer the above point concerning a shotgun-heavy preference for this defense method)―and the House Defense Method brings Tanks into right in close. When a Tank arrives, everyone in the group concentrates their shotgun fire onto the Tank and he should be dead in seconds. General Pointers and Tips *Incapacitation is a killer! Players must do their best to avoid incapacitation as it can be quite hard for a hard pressed team mate to revive a fallen comrade. A good idea is thus to heal slightly earlier than usual. *The point made earlier about all players communicating is worth emphasizing. *A glitch-based Jesus Place exists in this level that leaves a player untouchable by all opponents save for the Smokers. To use the place, go down the hill until encountering two trees sprouting in front of a rock. By jumping between the trees and the rock, a player becomes stuck in the space and is usually taken beyond reach of Infected. Tanks also seem to die upon approaching this position. Even when grabbed by a Smoker, a character cannot be dragged and therefore will not die. Note that only one character can occupy this position. Achievements :See Main Article: Achievements (PC Only) Notes * The "wrong turn" the survivors make can actually be seen in Death Toll Chapter 3. About halfway along the road to Riverside a road leads off to the right and ends in a padlocked gate guarding a fenced-in area similar to that featured in The Last Stand. * This is the only campaign that will end in the death of the Survivors. ** The only other campaign which will feature the death of at least one Survivor is the appropriately named The Sacrifice DLC. However, only The Sacrifice can be classed as canon. * When seen from a distance the lighthouse light appears to be lit but on moving closer it is shown to be unlit. * A serious glitch exists in the form of the so-called "co-op glitch" whereby players are stranded outside the chain link fence with no way to getting through it and thus accessing the lighthouse. Although it is possible to find several locations along the fence that can be climbed as if they were ladders, once on top of the fence the opposite side remains inaccessible as a result of an invisible barrier. The only way for a human player to get on the other side is by idling and letting a bot climb or teleport over the fence. It is believed that the climbable areas are unmarked climbing areas intended to be for the exclusive use of the Infected during Survival. * The co-op glitch gave rise to a popular notion that The Last Stand was originally intended to be another campaign involving the Survivors finding their way over the fence and up to the lighthouse to signal for rescue, but that this was canned for time and budgetary reasons and became a DLC Survival scenario instead. * "Last Stand" is a loose journalistic and military colloquialism referring to a group of troops holding a defensive position against a much larger attacking enemy force with no hope of relief, fleeing in hope of self-preservation or receiving quarter. Written up after the fact, such scenarios become self-defining since the defenders are either completely annihilated or (at best) are represented by only a small handful of survivors. In-game, this is the situation facing The Survivors. * As noted above and based on the scenario's location and atmosphere, it is likely that Valve's creative development team originally had this concept in mind as Death Toll's finale but it got nixed for operational reasons. On managerial review, it was probably judged as creatively too good to lose and thus a useful brand marketing asset to maintain user interest in the finished product by resurrecting it as a DLC. * This "campaign" generated considerable debate as to whether or not it was canon. The ultimate consensus is that it is not canon on the grounds that this scenario could not have happened since it runs counter to the canon tenets featured in The Sacrifice. Quite simply, if the events depicted in The Sacrifice are true then those presented in the Last Stand must be false. More specifically, the Last Stand most likely takes place in Pennsylvania, whereas according to the canon storyline the original Survivors leave Pennsylvania after the events of Blood Harvest to find another escape route which ultimately takes them to the events transpiring in The Sacrifice. For example, since Bill dies in the lead up to The Passing, it impossible for him have been killed in The Last Stand. Most within the dialectical end of the Left 4 Dead community are thus now content to view The Last Stand as a hypothetical scenario of what would have happened to The Survivors had they not simply found the light house, looked around and then moved on without starting the generator. * This is the only campaign with more than two words in its title. * A strange glitch can occur when a player spawns. A player might find they are seemingly leaning to the left as though incapacitated even though that person is standing up, can perform any action normally and appears normal to fellow team members. * During the final panels of The Sacrifice Part 3 comic, several soldiers (including Jeff and Annie) make a last stand at a structure that resembles either a lighthouse or maybe a building with a searchlight. This could be an oblique reference to The Last Stand - particularly as all of the soldiers are eventually overwhelmed and killed by infected. * It is the only campaign with one chapter - which provides further circumstantial evidence that it was deliberately released as a way of augmenting perceived user-value subsequent to the game's market launch. * The Jesus Place glitch method is now patched, as Smokers, Hunters and Tanks can now find their way through. Even though the glitch is patched, Tanks still have a hard time finding their way through and can be easily killed before they could find their way in, so use this time to your advantage. See Also * The Lighthouse * Survival Mode Category:Campaigns Category:Downloadable Content Category:Last Stand Category:Left 4 Dead Category:Survival